Ugandan special committee recommends withdrawal of Anti-homosexuality Bill

The New York Times published a report yesterday written by Josh Kron about the Ugandan Anti-homosexuality Bill. A special committee organized by the president of Uganda has recommended that the Bill should be withdrawn from Parliament.

Adolf Mwesige, a lawmaker and chairman of the special committee, said that virtually all clauses in the legislation were either unconstitutional or redundant, and that any other clauses should be placed in another bill dealing generally with sexual offenses.

“Ninety-nine percent of all the proposals in the Bahati bill have been done before,” Mr. Mwesige said. “If we proceeded, it would definitely provoke criticism, and rightly so.” Mr. Mwesige said he expected the full Parliament to vote down the bill within weeks. “The influence of the cabinet is very important. If it takes a decision, it must be taken seriously.”

Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda, has publicly shown concern about the legislation and formed the review committee in February in response to international scrutiny. Though the panel’s ruling is not the final word, analysts saw it as a strong sign that the bill would eventually be dropped.

Gay rights activists in Uganda were hopeful on Saturday that that would be the case. “So far the recommendations are welcomed by the community,” said Kasha Jacqueline, director of Freedom and Roam Uganda.

Spectrum Uganda Initiative, a Facebook group, continues to publish information about the progress of the Bill.

Colin Coward

No Time For Turning

Later this month the novelist Michael Arditti is going to address the Spring meeting of the (LGBT) Clergy Consultation, an organisation that also welcomes lay ministers and their partners. http://www.clergyconsultation.org/

Author of The Celibate (1993), about a gay ordinand, and Easter (2000), the chronicle of Holy Week in a north London parish when a gay curate is arrested and a lesbian couple’s daughter baptised at the Easter Vigil, Arditti has done more than most to explore what it means to be lesbian and gay in the Church today, and both novels introduce, or allude to, trans people within the orbit of the main characters - thank you, Michael.

http://www.michaelarditti.com/

Using humour and unexpected historical parallels or coincidences Arditti is a brilliant analyst of the key theological issue of theodicy - how suffering can be reconciled with belief in a God of unconditional love – and also of the effect of the erosion of faith or the loss personal religious convictions, subjects that he returns to in his latest novel, The Enemy of the Good (2009). The possibility of theology after the Holocaust is a constant theme of his fiction (one of his novels, Unity, concerns the Mitford sister who admired Hitler) which, despite Christian settings, contain key Jewish characters and themes (the narrator/ordinand of The Celibate is a convert from Judaism).

I have recently re-read Easter and am now two-thirds of the way through re-reading The Celibate which is set in 1980s Britain. With the media currently full of the General Election of 2010 it was sobering to read the following passage in which the narrator, inspired by the community and solidarity of taking part in a Gay Pride March through central London, reflects on the contrast with Thatcherite rhetoric of that period:

'We condemn ourselves from our own mouths as we’re left to use words that have become as discredited as the era they’ve been made to represent. So society is nothing more than a chimera, socialism anathema, the welfare state the dependency culture and idealism immaturity. While for their own part, political expediency has been elevated to the national interest, historical accident to the natural order, the party in government to the party of government, and their opponents branded the enemy within. The expropriation of language has gone hand in hand with that of faith. So though millions live in abject poverty, they still insist that we’ve been witnessing an economic miracle: as if the Feeding of the Five Thousand were simply to make the best use of resources rather than to share all that we have'.

I must be careful what I say here as Changing Attitude England is a non-political organisation, and also because, in the party leaders’ debate, Mr Cameron, more than once, accused Mr Brown of frightening voters, but I must admit I am frightened by the proposal that vast swathes of legislation will be repealed if Labour loses this election. Of course, the laws in question may have nothing to do those which, in recent years, have brought about greater equality for LGBT people, but I also recall Peter Tatchell’s comment, after describing the impressive number of these hard-won gains: ‘what has been given can also be taken away’.

As Arditti’s ordinand, accompanied by his lover and a friend, walk past the Palace of Westminster, they find themselves near ‘a banner opportunely demanding that we “Repeal the Section”’ a reference to Section 28, draconian legislation that put restrictions on artistic freedom just as it prevented LGBT schoolchildren at that time – like Mark, now in his late thirties who I was talking to only last week - from articulating their desires and learning, from teachers, how to manage them in humane and loving ways.

Whatever the outcome of Thursday’s election, we cannot allow any government to try to turn back that particular clock.

St Paul sowed the seed for a new paradigm for Christianity and the unfolding of a new Christian vision

At the moment, in different areas of my life, in my local parish and Changing Attitude networks, I’m encountering people who are longing in their hearts for something different from the church. Their longing transcends frustration and anger with the church which doesn’t ‘get’ LGBT people and ties itself in knots as it struggles to make space for women in the House of Bishops. Why are we expending so much time and energy on these issues, they ask, to the almost total neglect of people’s spiritual experiences and their yearning for spiritual vision and nurture?

Total neglect is an unfair assessment. There is, in many places in the Church of England, a flourishing depth of prayer and spirituality, but it is often peripheral to the habitual life of the church as manifested on Sunday mornings or in PCC meetings. Teaching and preaching rarely embrace the vision of what it could mean to be fully human and fully alive, as I’m sure the majority of you reading this know only too well.

There is a yearning among Changing Attitude supporters and trustees for a transformation of the church, for the courage to take risks and explore and experiment with language and music, stillness and silence, visual imagery, creative use of space, thinking outside the box – and freedom from those who trap us in a church bent on self-preservation and the maintenance of tradition, addicted to what I would see as peripherals.

St John’s Devizes held it’s AGM yesterday. Most of those who spoke voiced complaints and moaned about this and that. No, said one person, to a reordering of our church if it means making it warm, user-friendly and carpeted like a recently reordered local church. Consider the (poor, hard-done-by choir) said another, forced to robe in the challenging circumstances of finite space. ‘Twas ever thus, and, it seems, ever shall be.

Thank God, therefore, for Clive Larsen and Jenny Clark, one recently appointed, one recently retired as a trustee. Both of them engage me with new paradigms for Christianity and a new unfolding of the Christian vision. They have introduced me to CANA, Christians Awakening to a New Awareness and to the Wrekin Trust.


CANA is a loose-knit community of explorers who have Christian roots and share different experiences and insights for living out the teachings of Jesus in holistic and integrated ways. They are open to the moving of the Spirit to seek and explore God and the spiritual dimensions of life in a way that is open-ended and free from the boundaries that most religious frameworks and structures have imposed.

CANA recognises that we are all one through that of God within us from whatever background we come. It is a group where risk becomes safe through trust and where exploration is key. Everyone’s contribution is a valued part of the whole and none is dispensable. We are challenged to find new expressions of the emerging vision: global, ecological and mystical.

The Wrekin Trust is not specifically Christian. It is part of a world-wide movement towards personal and planetary transformation at a time of major social change. It seeks to awaken and revitalise a spiritual dimension in society and to encourage the emergence of a culture of love, healing and forgiveness, wisdom and harmony with nature.

The Wrekin Forum’s purpose is to empower and support a deeper connection between visionary organizations and individuals whose approach is based on holistic, spiritual and ecological principles. By exchanging ideas and perceptions and by combining resources and skills, a greater synergy can be created.

The Wrekin Forum’s guiding principles are:
The interconnectedness of life and the unity of consciousness
The intrinsic value and potential of each individual
A deep respect for the wellbeing of all interdependent life forms
A planetary ethic of interdependence
The recognition that diverse faith traditions and secular knowledge contribute to our collective wisdom
Mutual learning through open inquiry

The work of Changing Attitude is inspired by many diverse sources, scriptural, traditional, radical and liminal. Jesus, the pioneer of our faith, who descended to earth “… is none other than he who ascended far above all heavens, so that he might fill the universe.” (Ephesians 4.10) He has given us gifts in ministry “… to equip God’s people for … the building up of the Body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity inherent in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God – to mature personhood, measured by nothing less than the full stature of Christ.” (Ephesians 4.12,13)

Both CANA and the Wrekin Trust help me catch St Paul’s extraordinary vision of what it can mean to be growing towards maturity as a person and of the presence of God in all creation, filling the universe transcending all dualism and human divisions. I pray that those pursuing their particular agenda in the Global South may also catch something of St Paul’s sublime, expansive and all-embracing vision of God, woven into creation.

Colin Coward

The LGBT Anglican Coalition met in London today for the third time

The LGBT Anglican Coalition met in London today for the third time
The eight groups who form the Coalition have agreed to meet every six months with the objective of providing UK-based Christian LGBT organisations an opportunity to share resources for the Anglican community and develop resources for the full acceptance of LGBT people in the Anglican Communion.

We spent the morning focussed on organisational details – media releases, website content and management, how we deal with email enquiries, the purpose of the group (which inevitably provoked a complex discussion), the creation of a welcoming and open churches register and who might participate in ‘A Conversation Waiting to Begin’.

Andrew Marin, author of ‘Love is an Orientation’, had been invited to join us for the day. In the afternoon he told the story of how, when he was 19, each of his best (and only friends) came out to him as lesbian and gay, and how he inadvertently outed them to each other.

Andrew has been in the UK at the invitation of Spring Harvest where he addressed 1,000-strong audiences on multiples occasions in Skegness and Minehead. His experience there reinforced what I have been learning from conversations with young people in Africa and the Caribbean and from the Barna Group research published in ‘unchristian’ and anecdotally in the UK. Young Christians attending Spring Harvest don’t share their elders’ conservative evangelical attitudes to homosexuality. It isn’t an issue for them, they have been longing to be given space to talk about it, it isn’t an issue for them and the judgmental stance of older people leaves them baffled.

A dramatic change took place this year at Spring Harvest. Homosexuality was discussed openly, Andrew’s sessions were attended by huge crowds longing to engage (something the leadership hadn’t been prepared for) and many young LGBT people came out for the first time at Spring Harvest. Andrew is continuing to work with the team, exploring new initiatives based on the ‘Living in the Tension’ gatherings which form a key part of his work with the Marin Foundation in the USA.

Groups in Chicago and elsewhere meet twice a month for 90 minutes, people coming together from a diverse spectrum, LGBT and straight,, ex-gay, conservative, orthodox, liberal, radical, Christian, agnostic, atheist, where openness is expected, pat answers are challenged and all are expected to engage and contribute.

Andrew sowed the seeds for a number of practical ideas with the Coalition. We are already committed to a conversation with a number of conservative evangelicals and a group was authorised to take this forward. With Andrew’s help, we hope to find other ways in which we can live into the tension with those who hold a range of views about sexuality and faith.

Conversations in the Anglican Communion about human sexuality are plagued by the polarised views of extremists at either end of the spectrum – those who place their faith in the ex-gay movement at one end and those committed to human rights at the other. It is a struggle to find people willing to engage in conversations which can live into the tension.

Andrew Marin has been led by God into a ministry which is achieving something of a revolution in the USA, from Boy’s Town, Chicago to the White House in Washington. The work of his foundation is successfully bridging differences in people’s attitudes and bringing them together in a journey to mutual respect. I hope and pray that something similar can happen here, in communities across the UK.

Colin Coward

What has emerged from the Fourth Global South to South Encounter in Singapore?

The Global South Encounter ended today when the Fourth Trumpet was issued. Most of its content is very predictable but there are things of more value to be learnt from other reports about the Encounter.

Two proposals

The Most Rev. Mouneer Anis, Archbishop of the Middle East, proposed a new global Anglican structure to compensate for the ongoing 'ecclesial deficit' in the communion and sustain and enhance Christ's mission. He later clarified his idea saying that he was proposing a new structure for the global South only and not the Anglican Communion as a whole but some nevertheless saw it as an unofficial declaration of the Global South's independence from official Anglican Communion structures.

The second proposal came from Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda. He called for an Anglican Ecumenical Council of the worldwide Anglican Communion which he believes will bring to an end a dozen years of primatial communiqués, reports and endless talk of "process" and "listening" that has achieved nothing to resolve the crisis of faith and leadership within the Anglican Communion.

Kolini argued that the renewing of the Anglican Communion through such an ecumenical council would be binding on the church with Scripture as the church's supreme authority. Those provinces and dioceses that would not accept the Council's authority would place themselves outside the communion.

David Virtue claims than an archbishop told him; "The Ecumenical Council is the way forward. This is an unstoppable movement not another communion. We will prevail. The trumpet blast is the call for a new Council. The hope is that we can get it done this year."

The reality is that such proposals have been made repeatedly at Global South gatherings. The Archbishop of Canterbury isn’t going to call an emergency Primates meeting or an Anglican Ecumenical Council. The only way that Archbishop Mouneer Anis’s idea can come to fruition is if the Global South formally declares schism and claims to be the real Anglican Communion by the number of member it has. They haven’t declared schism yet and I wouldn’t bet on it happening this year.
Positive qualities

I’m grateful to Father Ron Smith who found the time to watch the video clips of talks give by the Primates of The Middle East, and Singapore. Commenting on Thinking Anglicans, he said that Archbishop John Chew’s was strangely moving. The Archbishop urged the delegates to listen to the message of Isaiah in the Suffering Servant passages. Father Ron saw hope for the Gospel of God's radical love and forgiveness to be taken seriously - by those of the Global South, as well as the rest of us. He also listened to Bishop Rennis Ponniah's Scriptural study on Isaiah.42:1-9 “…where he so beautifully speaks of God's love and compassion for ALL people.”

Father Ron reminds me that those gathered in Singapore are Anglicans, Christians on the road with us, and however uncomfortable they make life for us, they are still, like it or not, in communion with us. Neither side particularly likes this state of affairs, but I don’t believe we have the option (which they take to themselves) to say we are not in communion and do not recognize them. We in Changing Attitude recognize them and disagree totally with their attitude towards LGBT people.

Old guard and new recruits

David Virtue who was present in Singapore reported that the older generation of archbishops of Nigeria, Kenya, Central Africa and Rwanda are retiring while other Global South bishops in Singapore are new to leadership roles in the Anglican Communion and are not completely familiar with some of the personalities and the nuances of the Communion. Says David “…it will be important to get the new archbishops and bishops up to speed so they won't be blindsided by the power of the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other Instruments of ‘unity’.”

Some archbishops and bishops speaking to David Virtue in private expressed concern that Rowan Williams will try to exploit, conquer and divide the Global South bishops because many are inexperienced and lack the ability to challenge his authority. One archbishop apparently told David that +Rowan could exploit their inexperience, which anyone who knows +Rowan knows to be untrue. This shows the lack of respect some of the GS Primates have for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Nothing new there, but it’s always interesting to me that David Virtue wants to publicise the fact.

David thinks +Rowan “is trying to wait them out.” He knows the next generation needs a learning curve and “will exploit it and hopefully prevail. He can drag his heels with endless talk of ‘process’ and ‘listening’.”

American Conservative bloggers at war

David Virtue reported that “Everyone is upbeat, cheerful and at peace. The archbishops and bishops are smiling; they are not fighting liberal and revisionist archbishops and bishops who have a different religion. Only God knows what they really believe, but whatever truncated Christianity they have, you won't find it here. There is no tension here. There is joy and peace. No one is being asked to reconcile the irreconcilable. This is Anglicanism at its finest."
This is David’s typical idyllic, fantasy version of the reactionary and progressive parts of the Anglican Communion.

And then … on Tuesday Greg Griffiths (who wasn’t in Singapore) posted on Stand Firm that “...after Archbishop Rowan Williams' video address to the Global South-to-South Encounter audience was over, there was silence. No one applauded, and glances around the room revealed lots of head-shaking and eye-rolling.”

David Virtue (who was there) sent an email to various people which you can read here if you really need to. David abuses Stand Firm and uses language which, if Changing Attitude used such language, he would torment us with for eternity.

The comments thread on both Stand Firm and VirtueOnLine usually display the most prejudiced opinions in the Communion and the most vitriol towards the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Presiding Bishop, +Gene Robinson and the Episcopal church in general. Commentators now turned their fire on Greg for having posted David’s email in the first place and on David for attacking Stand Firm (not for the first time) and for using such abusive language.

This outburst reminds me to continue live by faith, stay deeply centered in the love of God and continue to trust in the Kingdom qualities which Jesus proclaimed. There is, when all is said and done, something deeply unpleasant and totally unchristian among those who claim the Christian high ground. They accuse us of betraying the Gospel whilst doing the same themselves. It’s such an easy and cheap point to make against them, but when you are among those who have been repeatedly abused and vilified by the American Christian right, there’s something satisfying when they publicly reveal the true nature of their shadow selves.

Why are Global South leaders tempted to follow old-paradigm, British Colonial Christian ideas?

Yesterday’s lectionary readings from Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 2 set off a train of thought in me.

Deuteronomy gives substantial support (for those who give equal weight and authority to the whole of the Bible) to those who claim to be orthodox, conservative and evangelical in their commitment to a God of rules who wields power and authority. God has commanded Moses to teach the Israelites all the commandments, statutes and laws so that they may “fear the LORD your God and keep all his statutes and commandments.” (Deut 6.2) If they go after other Gods, “...the anger of the LORD your God who is among you will be roused against you, and he will sweep you off the face of the earth ...” (Deut 6.15) “The LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes and to fear the LORD our God...” (Deut 6.24) God commands obedience to law and is to be feared.

Paul on the other hand, writing to the church in Ephesus, reiterates again and again that it is by grace that we are saved (Eph 1.7, 2.5, 2.8), grace has immense resources (Eph 2.7). God has lavished on us all wisdom and insight (Eph 1.8) that we may know “how rich and glorious is the share he offers you among his people in their inheritance...” (Eph 1.18) and has raised us up “...so that he might display in the ages to come how immense are the resources of his grace...” (Eph 2.7) because “...we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the life of good deeds which God has designed for us.” (Eph 2.10)

Now, if you are a Global South Anglican, the teaching of Deuteronomy is as much your guide as is Paul, and you can use Leviticus 18.22 to condemn LGBT people. It will be clear to Global South Anglicans that the grace and gifts lavished by God and described by Paul in Epehsians cannot apply to loving, partnered LGBT people. I, partnered, gay Colin Coward, am mistaken in my experience of the lavishness of God’s grace and God’s gifts and blessings on my life – not so?????

How has this state of affairs arisen? How can the Revd Dr Paul Swarup in the third thematic address in Singapore say that we can only be a light to the nations by following God’s instruction and pursuing justice and encouraged the Encounter delegates to pursue justice by calling people to be accountable, speak the truth in love and expose what is not of the Lord, which means, of course, exposing TEC, Mary Glasspool, Gene Robinson and all the faithfully partnered Christians in the Communion?

Let me float a theory. The ‘west’ - Britain in the case of Anglicanism - exported the Empire Brand, Colonialism, a system of power and control (and rape of other world resources) by ‘us’ over ‘them’ for our white, British benefit. The British integrated a version of Christianity into the British Empire Brand, modelled on Victorian colonial values and norms – hence, obedience to the Ten Commandments, to authority, to the teaching of law, not grace, and submission to the rule of God and the Queen, both symbols of supreme autocratic power. This model continues to work well for some authority figures in Africa, those who enjoy holding, wielding and abusing power and authority.

Meanwhile, many Anglicans follow an entirely different Christian model which bears little relationship to the brand exported to the colonies. The Colonial brand continues to achieve surprising success in various parts of the world, but would be the kiss of death for the UK and, in its extreme form, in the USA also.

What can we do about this dire state of affairs in which what I believe to be a largely misguided, old-paradigm, Empire Brand Christianity has become dominant and is accepted by the majority of adherents as historically orthodox and congruent with the teaching of Jesus? The answer to this question is what I am daily trying to work out as I live into my faith. I remember core truths - I remember that God is the loving creative energy at the heart of the universe, not Global South Primates and leaders. They have their place in the witness to Jesus Christ, but it isn’t at the centre controlling the destiny of all, which is where they are trying to place themselves this week in Singapore.

Colin Coward

Fractious times in the Central African Province as clergy go unpaid while 4 clergy fly to Singapore

Anglican-Information – which calls itself ‘a voice for the voiceless’ in the Anglican Central African Province - issued e-letters this week revealing that the acting Dean of the Province, the Rt Rev’d Albert Chama (pictured below left) has flown to the Fourth Global South Encounter in Singapore accompanied by Bishops William Mchamba of Eastern Zambia and Godfrey Tawonzvi of Masvingo, Zimbabwe together with Fr Christopher Mwawa formerly Dean of the College of Christian Ministries, Diocese of Lake Malawi.

Currently, the clergy of Zimbabwe and Lake Malawi are unpaid, surviving by scratching a living from their smallholdings. The cost of the first class flights and accommodation for the four attending the Global South-South Encounter in Singapore roughly equals a whole year’s pay for the unpaid clergy of the Province. It is not clear where the finance for their attendance in Singapore has come from but Anglican Information assumes it is from conservative, schismatic North American Anglicans. Dismay and anger are now being expressed against the acting Dean for such a profligate waste of money.

Yesterday, a letter issued by the Diocesan Secretary of the Diocese of Lake Malawi announced a change in date for the consecration and enthronement of the Venerable Francis Kaulanda as the next Bishop of Lake Malawi. Originally scheduled to take place on Sunday 2nd May it has now been postponed to Sunday 9th May ‘in order to accommodate as many Provincial Bishops as possible’ says the letter. The real reason is the absence of the acting Dean of the Province and other bishops who have flown to Singapore.

Shockingly, the letter repeats a request for desperately needed funds for the Diocese. Donations tend to come largely from the UK and the USA, the very churches which the Global South Conference has been called to condemn. Donors are likely to think twice this time. As Anglican Information puts it, those attending the South-South Encounter “… are currently pursuing a fissiparous agenda in their battle against the American Episcopal Church and a disruptive and schismatic programme in the Anglican Communion.”

As I reported, Ian Earnest, the Archbishop of the Indian Ocean and a key member of the Global South-South Encounter, wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury on 13th April insisting that at further meetings of Anglican Primates the North Americans should specifically not be invited. His presence combined with Albert Chama’s attendance affects Bishop James Tengatenga (pictured right) of the Diocese of Southern Malawi. Bishop James was elected chairperson of the Anglican Consultative Council at the Jamaica meeting last year. The ACC has, of course, been severely criticised by the Global South. Bishop James, whom I have met on several occasions, is currently on sabbatical study leave in the United States with the Episcopal Church.

Bishop Trevor Mwamba of Botswana and Bishop Chad Gandiya of Harare also have reason to feel aggrieved with Chama’s actions because they have been closely associated with the North American Churches and have remained loyal to Canterbury.

It is not clear where Albert Chama’s authority to attend on behalf of the Central African Province has come from. He has neither the approval of the Provincial synod nor the support of the other bishops. By attending the Conference in Singapore he allows the Province to be counted as supportive of the schismatic movement, when this is clearly not the case.

The scenario in the Central African Province reveals the divisions which in truth underlie the false claims to represent a unified majority in the Anglican Communion made by the Global South leaders.

Colin Coward